As a gesture to present works to a general public The Space Project was the most uplifting exhibit I saw affiliated with The Works this year. Not part of the downtown hoopla, but just on the fringe and the only exhibit that made any sense, curated works from Grant MacEwan's pool of talent takes over the new Robbins Health Learning Centre on the corner of 109 St and 104 Ave. Unaware that the building was even complete, as it's not a location I ever walk by and somewhat forgettable as you pass by in vehicles, the opportunity to check out the building was rewarded by a surprisingly diverse presentation of mixed and multimedia work. Not too many public lobbies will handle a 15 meter plus (?) walk-through of cardboard and television sets, but Brittany Baxter and Kurt Gallop's "The Maze" is not so much a maze, but a barrage that screams with urgency. The hum of the entire unit may be lost amongst the day-time crowds, but the interaction of the work with its drawn curtain and flickering lights proves that interactive installations can exist in public spaces outside of gallery spaces.
The floating core foam mounted photographs and poems were maybe too small, but floating throughout and over potential meeting spaces, their presence pressed home that this room was the right place to be in (which is a doubt I often feel with random art in random public spaces). From the 2D works, Nathan Winiskittolmes' photographs were of note, catching moments in between remembering and acknowledging, and of the 3D, the uncredited wooden mobile jigsaw profile rightfully belongs in that lobby of a learning centre. Admittedly, the work seemed far more mature than the rest, and I had to confirm with a security guard whether if this was part of the exhibition or always here, as the work fills the space the best by adding to its structural heights and configuring how you move around and towards it.
Though the theme of space was a loose parameter that didn't consistently justify itself, the show was superior in its presentation of a public art exhibition. Curated by Kim Meiklejohn and Nicole Lemieux and coordinated by Janine Edwards, it's consoling to see the next generation of Edmonton artists engaging with the idea of space and public art with no holds barred. I can only hope this repeats itself--and ideally during the school semester.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Twenty20: Harcourt House, June 19 - July 19, 2008 Review by Erin Carter
Stumbling up three flights of stairs and through the welcoming doors to Harcourt House, I was colourfully greeted by the mixed media members exhibition sale Twenty:20. Ranging from professional to amateur artists, I was expecting to see more of a professional show than being immediately confronted with pieces that didn’t say much to me. Some of the art seemed rough and not really “done”. I felt that a lot of studies members had done in classes ended up for sale.
Walking through, I noticed a few stand-alone cases that appeared finished, but found it difficult to find them amidst the mish mash of bright colleague-y bits. For example, I couldn’t stop staring at the fine details in Edie McIntyre’s two wax-based portraits. As the two faces followed me through the second room, my eyes were guided to mix media pieces using wood, wax, paint, and found items. I was grounded by the fact that Harcourt House celebrates continuous education in the arts, but I found that the majority of art pieced on the unmatched puzzle of walls leaned on the side of artists in progress.
Harcourt House is a major supporter of home grown artists and it’s nice to see the opportunities they give out to their members, i.e. an art sale and a chance to get their work into the public eye. The majority of the prices for some of the compositions were arguable, but there were a few diamonds in the rough.
Erin Carter is Prairie Artsters 2008 summer intern
Walking through, I noticed a few stand-alone cases that appeared finished, but found it difficult to find them amidst the mish mash of bright colleague-y bits. For example, I couldn’t stop staring at the fine details in Edie McIntyre’s two wax-based portraits. As the two faces followed me through the second room, my eyes were guided to mix media pieces using wood, wax, paint, and found items. I was grounded by the fact that Harcourt House celebrates continuous education in the arts, but I found that the majority of art pieced on the unmatched puzzle of walls leaned on the side of artists in progress.
Harcourt House is a major supporter of home grown artists and it’s nice to see the opportunities they give out to their members, i.e. an art sale and a chance to get their work into the public eye. The majority of the prices for some of the compositions were arguable, but there were a few diamonds in the rough.
Erin Carter is Prairie Artsters 2008 summer intern
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Works 2008 Review*
Hitting downtown starting Thursday night, all day Friday, parts of Saturday and briefly on Sunday, my experience of The Works Art & Design Festival once again fizzles and splits after the first weekend. As the premiere festival in showcasing “international” art and design in Edmonton, I am continually saddened and perplexed as to how we continue to tolerate mediocrity. Art in big plastic tents, exhibitions low in production value and works that belong more on a fridge than a wall: I’m at a loss as to where our value of art actually sits.
I’ll state off the bat that my favourite experience of the weekend was an exhibition in direct contrast and completely separate from the festival. Art and Life in the McLeod Building, which was perhaps what the festival once used to be—at least in theory—taking an empty street front space, polishing it up and filling it with challenging, quality art that has both a local connection and a global reach. Sculptures from Catherine Burgess, Sandra Bromley and Zimbabwean stone works from the Mark Kumleben Collection were aided by the grandiosity of the space, and its sheer rawness and elegance was so simultaneously uplifting and frustrating that it left me to wonder what The Works was about anymore. As an ideal example of bringing a spark of art to downtown life, the glow left by Art and Life already outlasts anything I have ever experienced from the Works.
Starting on Thursday, Harcourt House’s members show kicked off my journey by easing in with the festival’s “art around town” exhibits. With a BBQ in full swing at Harcourt, a rooftop patio party at Latitude 53 and a party crowd gathering at the ARTery, it was a good feeling to see diversity coexisting. But formally, the work at Harcourt was considerably more amateur this year, and this was a point of discussion brought up to me as I stepped into the ARTery later that night, which is organically becoming the best (non)-artist-run centre in the city.
On Friday, the first stop was at Latitude 53 to go through Judy Cheung’s Mind of a City step by step. Cute, and preoccupying, the result was, however, not worth the effort. Continuing on, I had to stop at the McLeod Building again to show the space to Gerry Morita, Artistic Director of Mile Zero Dance and my art fiend* for the day. Crossing the river to see the shows at FAB Gallery and to see the Japanese woodblock prints at the Telus Centre, the woodcuts were treasures hidden inside this highly underused building of odd hours, and the poor misuse of space would be the defining lesson of the day, challenged only by the lesson on how poor quality of sound ruins an experience.
A solo jaunt back downtown across the bridge and through the legislature grounds, I came up onto Jasper Ave to be stopped dead in my tracks by one of The Works artists, furious over the presentation of her work and struggling to decide whether to pull the work or not. Wishing her the best of luck, I soon found the excellent prints at Manulife Place that were unfortunately washed out against the granite walls; the large abstract paintings in Scotia Place that left me indifferent; Lylian Klimek’s sculptural interventions inside the Bank of Montreal that made me smile and look suspicious; the exhibitions upstairs and downstairs at the Milner library that left me wondering if the festival is just actually community art on steroids; and a stroll through the square, through the tarped rooms of art and over to City Hall to see and touch the bird tubes outside and the panels of stellar buildings inside. Seeing the work en route through downtown isn’t too bad, but if I had come specifically to see any of the exhibitions I would have been severely disappointed. Later that evening, after the AGA opening, we headed to SNAP, catching the tail end of Karen Trask and Kyla Fischer’s opening, which was worth crossing Churchill Square for.
Saturday night I attended the under-attended The Works Opening Night Party. The first band, Jane Vain and the Dark Matter, was actually pretty good, but the sparse, restless crowd mostly stood outside in the gravel parking lot for the majority of the evening. Looking around the room after Terrence Houle’s performance of “I’ll See you Again,” the room was only thinly lined with AGA staff and guests, Works crew and volunteers and the performers themselves. Feeling nothing, I left before the DJs started.
And as I write this on a very rainy Sunday afternoon after listening to talks by Estonian new media artists curated by Shawn Pinchbeck, a talk that touched upon their social and civic conditions through media interventions as contemporary artists, this festival’s unmannered array of works and unqualified water theme trickle through my head as I’m left exhausted in hope and simply horrified at how our public art festival has slid into a mishmash of disconnected lobby art.
*First published in Vue Weekly June 26 - July 4, 2008
**Corrected from print publication
I’ll state off the bat that my favourite experience of the weekend was an exhibition in direct contrast and completely separate from the festival. Art and Life in the McLeod Building, which was perhaps what the festival once used to be—at least in theory—taking an empty street front space, polishing it up and filling it with challenging, quality art that has both a local connection and a global reach. Sculptures from Catherine Burgess, Sandra Bromley and Zimbabwean stone works from the Mark Kumleben Collection were aided by the grandiosity of the space, and its sheer rawness and elegance was so simultaneously uplifting and frustrating that it left me to wonder what The Works was about anymore. As an ideal example of bringing a spark of art to downtown life, the glow left by Art and Life already outlasts anything I have ever experienced from the Works.
Starting on Thursday, Harcourt House’s members show kicked off my journey by easing in with the festival’s “art around town” exhibits. With a BBQ in full swing at Harcourt, a rooftop patio party at Latitude 53 and a party crowd gathering at the ARTery, it was a good feeling to see diversity coexisting. But formally, the work at Harcourt was considerably more amateur this year, and this was a point of discussion brought up to me as I stepped into the ARTery later that night, which is organically becoming the best (non)-artist-run centre in the city.
On Friday, the first stop was at Latitude 53 to go through Judy Cheung’s Mind of a City step by step. Cute, and preoccupying, the result was, however, not worth the effort. Continuing on, I had to stop at the McLeod Building again to show the space to Gerry Morita, Artistic Director of Mile Zero Dance and my art fiend* for the day. Crossing the river to see the shows at FAB Gallery and to see the Japanese woodblock prints at the Telus Centre, the woodcuts were treasures hidden inside this highly underused building of odd hours, and the poor misuse of space would be the defining lesson of the day, challenged only by the lesson on how poor quality of sound ruins an experience.
A solo jaunt back downtown across the bridge and through the legislature grounds, I came up onto Jasper Ave to be stopped dead in my tracks by one of The Works artists, furious over the presentation of her work and struggling to decide whether to pull the work or not. Wishing her the best of luck, I soon found the excellent prints at Manulife Place that were unfortunately washed out against the granite walls; the large abstract paintings in Scotia Place that left me indifferent; Lylian Klimek’s sculptural interventions inside the Bank of Montreal that made me smile and look suspicious; the exhibitions upstairs and downstairs at the Milner library that left me wondering if the festival is just actually community art on steroids; and a stroll through the square, through the tarped rooms of art and over to City Hall to see and touch the bird tubes outside and the panels of stellar buildings inside. Seeing the work en route through downtown isn’t too bad, but if I had come specifically to see any of the exhibitions I would have been severely disappointed. Later that evening, after the AGA opening, we headed to SNAP, catching the tail end of Karen Trask and Kyla Fischer’s opening, which was worth crossing Churchill Square for.
Saturday night I attended the under-attended The Works Opening Night Party. The first band, Jane Vain and the Dark Matter, was actually pretty good, but the sparse, restless crowd mostly stood outside in the gravel parking lot for the majority of the evening. Looking around the room after Terrence Houle’s performance of “I’ll See you Again,” the room was only thinly lined with AGA staff and guests, Works crew and volunteers and the performers themselves. Feeling nothing, I left before the DJs started.
And as I write this on a very rainy Sunday afternoon after listening to talks by Estonian new media artists curated by Shawn Pinchbeck, a talk that touched upon their social and civic conditions through media interventions as contemporary artists, this festival’s unmannered array of works and unqualified water theme trickle through my head as I’m left exhausted in hope and simply horrified at how our public art festival has slid into a mishmash of disconnected lobby art.
*First published in Vue Weekly June 26 - July 4, 2008
**Corrected from print publication
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